A wireless communication device, also referred to as a mobile phone, a wireless handset, etc., may include a camera module. These “camera phones” may include a variety of features comparable to standard digital camera counterparts such as built in flash, night vision, zoom-in, red eye correction, etc. Some photographs taken by camera phones include a time and date stamp associated with each image based upon settings specified by the phone manufacturer or by the user.
Once a photograph is taken by the mobile phone user, the photograph can be stored in the phone for later viewing on the phone. Later, the user can directly download the photographic images to a user's home computer, for example. However, in some phones, memory is limited which limits the number of photographs that can be stored on a phone. Thus, service providers offer services that allow the user to upload the photograph to a server of the service provider. The phone user is then billed for this service. The user can then access the photographs from the service provider and download the photos for storage in a personal device, such as a home computer, for viewing and for printing. This same service may also allow the user to send the photograph to another mobile phone user or to a particular location, such as an Internet or electronic-mail (e-mail) destination.
A user will typically arrange the digital photographs in electronic files or in software applications that allow the user to identify where the photograph was taken. Alternately, the user may print the photograph and label the photographs with notes regarding the location where the photograph was taken. Some camera phones allow the user to attach a caption to the photograph. In such instances, the user can attach a caption indicating the location that the picture was taken. However, this method of location identification is time consuming and is the digital equivalent of hand writing the location on the photograph. Thus, the photographer is highly likely to not use this option and, ultimately, will forget where a photograph was taken, particularly when many photographs are taken.
An advantage of having a camera phone is that an image can be sent immediately to another mobile phone user, or as mentioned above for example, to a user on other networks, for example, the Internet. A photograph that is taken by a user and later digitally sent to any place in the world can provide great incentives for others to visit the place where the photograph was taken. However, because the photograph is often not labeled by the sender, the photograph loses meaning in its association with a particular location.
Global positioning systems provide location data (longitude data and latitude data). Digital cameras are known that include a global positioning system (GPS) in the camera. The GPS provides location data that is appended in memory to the image data once a picture is taken. However, this information is not displayed with the picture. Similarly, wireless communication devices may include a global positioning system (GPS) within the phone for use by the user, or for use in various services provided to the user. For example, location information obtained by a GPS system within the wireless phone may automatically be sent to emergency services, such as E911. However, specific information such as GPS provided location coordinates may not be of particular significance to a user who later views a photograph. Also, the location information is not associated with or displayed when a photograph is being taken by a wireless phone. Therefore, a need exists to provide immediate identification of a location of a photograph taken by a wireless communication device.